Five minutes to midnight again: Can we get the 2018 Budget before New Year?

The BiH Presidency determined the Bill on the Budget of BiH Institutions and International Obligations of BiH for 2018 in the amount of BAM 1,954,062,329 on December 14 at an extraordinary session.

This legal proposal will be submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH for adoption, the BiH Presidency announced. Although some expected that the BiH Parliament, at least the House of Representatives, would finish this job by December 16, given that there was a session on December 15, it did not happen due to an extremely difficult session regarding the Excise Law.

It is evident that, as every year, the Budget will be rushed at the last minute. The next session of the House of Representatives is scheduled for December 21, and it is expected that the Collegium will include these items on the agenda, and that the session of the House of Peoples will be scheduled soon after.

The Council of Ministers of BiH determined the Draft Law on the Budget of BiH Institutions and International Obligations of BiH for the next year in the amount of BAM 1,954,062,329 on November 22.

The budget for financing institutions remains BAM 950 million, although the total requests from users were higher by BAM 333,727,000 or 36 percent, it was announced at the time from the Council of Ministers.

Revenues for servicing external debt amount to BAM 1,004,062,329 and are lower by about 7.1 million KM compared to this year, so the budget totals BAM 1,954,062,329.

The budget includes, among other things, funds for the implementation of general elections next year, for multi-year projects of budget users and putting the state prison into operation, as well as funds for calculating salaries for police officers due to the legally adopted amendment to their coefficients.